Zuckerberg on IPO, Disappointment Over ‘Home’ App

The Facebook CEO returned to the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco Wednesday to talk up his company’s successes on mobile phones and discuss its widening mission to connect people through new initiatives such as Internet.org. His on-stage interview was preceded by a company milestone: Facebook’s stock closed on Wednesday at an all-time high of $45.04.

Just one year ago, Facebook seemed to be on a free fall. At the time, its stock was trading at about $20 per share — almost half of its IPO price — and many were wondering it Zuckerberg would ever figure out a profitable mobile business model. Then, at last year’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Zuckerberg described his big bet on HTML5 — a technology that allows an app to work on various mobile devices — as one of the company’s biggest mistakes.

This year, Zuckerberg didn’t dwell on mistakes — though he did joke that he would be the last person that Twitter executives should talk to about “how to make a smooth IPO.” He said he had worried that the messy IPO would leave his company demoralized or spur an exodus. But he now believes it is stronger and that he has a better grasp of its business.